Week 2 Wider reading developmental psychology

Recap/overview of sociocultural theory

• - Most fundamental concept of this theory is that the human mind is mediated
• - Vygotsky argued as well as relying on tools and labor activity, we also use symbolic tools or signs to mediate and regulate our relationships
• - suggested we have higher mental capacities including voluntary attention, intentional memory, planning, logical thought and problem solving
• - cognitive development is due to children's interaction with more experienced members of their culture
• Brown et al (1992)
• - suggests active agents within the zone of proximal development can include people, adults and children with various degrees of expertise but it can also include artifacts such as books, videos, wall displays, scientific equipment and a computer environment intended to support intentional learning

The role of play

• Strelkova (1986)
• - found 6 year olds demonstrated helping behaviour when role relations supported it but helping behaviour disappeared after eliminating this role
• - concluded the zone of proximal development as a potential formation of personality development and structure
• Slade (1987)
• - concluded that during the first few years of a child's life, parents have a critical role in influencing children's play and developing social and communication skills

Scaffolding

• Define Scaffolding
• In the field of education, the term scaffolding refers to a process in which teachers model or demonstrate how to solve a problem, and then step back, offering support as needed.
• Panofsky (1994)
• - studied the role of parent-child book reading in early literacy socialisation focusing on the functions and uses of language
• - she found a differentiation between representational and interactional functions of language
• - concluding the roles of scaffolding and ZPD are important and there is a shift in the use of functions from a predominanceof parent initiations to a predominance of child initiations

Slide 4

• Palinscar, Brown & Campione (1993)
• - examined the role of reciprocal learning where students and teachers take turns leading discussions about shared texts to see if structured dialogues foster a learning community
• - They found this study exemplified 2 themes in sociocultural approaches to classroom learning
• 1) the implementation of an educational programme that allows for or encourages the co construction of knowledge
• 2) The analysis of this learning that contributes to our understanding of classroom learning from a sociocultural perspective
• - They concluded collaborative learning plays an increasing role in these as well as many other innovative classrooms

Further strengths to this theory

• Moll (1992)
• - We gain a much more valid understanding because we study humans dynamically, within their social circumstances and their full complexity
• - We also gain, in the case of minority children, a more positive view of their capabilities and how our pedagogy often constrains and just as often distorts what they do and what they are capable of doing

References

• Brown, A. L. (1992). Design experiments: Theoretical and methodological challenges in creating complex interventions in classroom settings. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2(2), 141-178.
• Strelkova L. P. (1986). Usloviya razvityi empatii pod
• vliyaniem hudozestvennogo proizvedeniya. In Zaporozhets A. V. & Neverovic
• Ya. Z. (еds.). Razvytie sotsialnyh emotsii u detei doshkolnogo vozrasta, 70—99.
• Moscow: Pedagogika.
• Slade, Arietta. (1987). A longitudinal
• study of maternal involvement and
• symbolic play during the toddler period.
• Child Development, 58, 367-375.
• Panofsky, C. P.
• (1994). Developing the representational functions of language: The role of
• parent-child book-reading activity. In V. John-Steiner, C. P. Panofsky, &
• L. W. Smith (Eds.), Sociocultural
• approaches to language and literacy: An interactionist perspective (pp. 223-242). New York: Cambridge
• University Press.
• Moll, L. C.
• (1992). Literacy research in community and classrooms: A sociocultural
• approach. In R. Beach, J. L. Green, M. L. Kamil, & T. Shanahan (Eds.), Multidisciplinary perspectives on literacy research (pp. 211-244). Urbana, IL: National Council of
• Teachers of English.
• Palincsar, A. M.,
• Brown, A. L., & Campione, J. C. (1993). First-grade dialogues for knowledge
• acquisition and use. In E. A. Forman, N. Minick, & C. A. Stone (Eds.), Contexts for learning: Sociocultural dynamics in children's
• development (pp. 43-57). New York: Oxford
• University Press.